When comparing DASH vs DM, the Slant community recommends DASH for most people. In the question“What is the best programming language to learn first?” DASH is ranked 52nd while DM is ranked 72nd. The most important reason people chose DASH is:
Dash has a very fast startup, this happens because the shell is started a lot of times during boot and dash minimizes the work it does during this process.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Fast startup
Dash has a very fast startup, this happens because the shell is started a lot of times during boot and dash minimizes the work it does during this process.
Pro Low memory usage, which matters a lot in embedded
It is designed to be very lightweight and has no support for shell specific extensions that are not POSIX.
Pro Default shell on Debian systems
DASH is the default shell for Debian based systems due to it speed, full POSIX compliance and low overhead.
Pro Full POSIX support
It's fully POSIX compatible, so if your script runs on dash it will probably run on all other shells.
Pro A perfect clone
It's a clone of the original System V4 Bourne shell.
Pro Active development
DM and BYOND are constantly being developed and expanded, with feedback from the community, and Lummox as the lead developer.
Pro Active community
The BYOND community is helpful, and has been active for decades, so there are many solutions available. You can find many answers in the forums.
Pro Excellent documentation
Documentation is easy to learn, and can be found here.
Pro Quickly create online multiplayer games
Makes networking easy, so you can just make your game.
Pro Easy to learn
One of the easiest to learn languages. Similar to Python and C++.
Cons
Con Doesn't support all bash features
Dash does not support all bash features, sometimes called 'bashisms' unless explicitly pointed at /bin/sh
.
Con Proprietary language
DM is owned and developed by BYOND. As such, you will only be able to use it for software created using BYOND's software suite.
